Goldene : Single-Atom Layer Of Gold
Researchers in Sweden have created ‘Goldene’ – a single-atom layer of gold that can be used in a variety of applications like hydrogen production, and water purification, production of value-added chemicals, communication, and much more. Gold is usually a metal, but if a single atom layer thick gold can become a semiconductor instead.
- They used a modified version of Murakami’s reagent, inspired by an ancient Japanese smithing (forging art) technique, to selectively remove carbon in darkness and prevent cyanide formation, which dissolves gold.
- The researchers used a three-dimensional base material where gold is embedded between layers of titanium and carbon to create Goldene.
- The manipulation of matter on atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scales, (about 1 to 100 nanometers) is termed as Nanotechnology. One nanometer (nm) is one-billionth or (10-9) of a meter.
- This new form of gold has different properties than regular gold similar to the case of graphene.
